Irish Literary Times

via @tomgauld.bsky.social

Lots of flotilla people at today’s blocking of Dublin port. We sailed not as a once-off gesture, but to build on it with direct action at home. Israel does not care what we think; the only way to impact the situation is by directly challenging the blockade and disrupting the flow of money and arms

Congrats

Over the moon to be part of @winterpapers.bsky.social. It’s a joy to be sharing my essay ‘Mid-Life Music Lessons’ as part of this beauty alongside so many whose work I admire. The launch is @dublinbookfest.bsky.social next Sat, Nov 8. Here’s to music, winter reading & dreaming the future.

“FUCK AI” is turning into a movement.

After his Frankenstein Q&A at the Chinese Theater, Guillermo del Toro asked the audience to scream “FUCK AI.”

Writing the Body - Dublin Book Festival Joining our panel are poet and essayist Gustav Parker Hibbett whose debut collection High Jump as Icarus Story won the 2025 John Pollard Foundation International Poetry Prize, Sam Furlong whose just-p...

Joining this knockout panel as part of this year's @dublinbookfest.bsky.social
are Gustav Parker Hibbett, Sam Furlong and Sophie White in conversation with @mollytwomey.bsky.social.

Saturday 08th November @ 11:30 am
@irishwriterscentre.bsky.social
dublinbookfestival.com/event/writin...

Not checking off the above list necessarily, but I knew someone who didn't want to do the beach thing either after LC and went with a few friends to Berlin instead. I thought that was cool.

A very bare old tree leaning from years of wind.

Beckett stage props found on Mullaghmore.

"There is a marvellous peace in not publishing...Publishing is a terrible invasion of my privacy. I like to write. I live to write. But I write just for myself and my own pleasure...I'm known as a strange, aloof kind of man. But all I'm doing is trying to protect myself and my work."

J. D. Salinger

Sheridan LeFanu’s grave

Great #BramStokerFestival Mount Jerome Cemetery tour - with a @swanriverpress.bsky.social shout-out at LeFanu’s grave.

Launch No 2 for The Storms, the printed journal of poetry, prose & visual art, is the audio companion on Eat the Storms, the podcast.

This bumper episode episode is 2 hours+ and is now available on #Applepodcasts #AmazonPodcasts #Podbean and #Spotify

spotify.link/6cfE2v1lYXb

Please join us for this vital event on Tuesday! Scottish poet & essayist @kathleenjamie.bsky.social in conversation with Chris Agee 🍃

1pm Tuesday (4 Nov), in Belfast's The Linen Hall 📚

Book your tickets at:
linenhall.com/event/kathle...

@byleaveswelive.bsky.social @irishlittimes.bsky.social

enjoy!

Gazan doctor fears she will lose place on UCC course after visa application rejected Baraa Mansour, who was evacuated from Palestinian enclave in 2024, says refusal of her visa is ‘devastating’

Gaza doctor, who managed to get out in 2024 to Cairo, gets study place in Palestine friendly Ireland. She wants to further qualify and then return to Gaza. Bur Ireland rejects visa application.

www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2025...

Streaming 8am & 1pm Podcasts and more. Get all links at linktr.ee/irishradioca...
The Atlantic Pitch - David Conway, Mitchell Plunkett, Steve Kent: Dreamtown-Steve McKenna:Bodhran Maker Les Starkey:International Uilleann Piping Day-Muireann Ní Shé
Music from Carmel Gunning, Shaine, BrendanNolan,

Aisling Rogerson scatters her late husband Manchán's ashes at his month’s mind. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill

www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2025...

A rainbow appears at Month’s mind for Manchán Magan: Ashes and celebration of land and spirit, at the Hill of Uisneach, Westmeath. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill
www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2025...

Review: In Samuel Beckett’s ‘Endgame,’ Repetition Is the Thing

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/t...

Rain warning issued for four counties on Sunday with possible flooding and difficult travel conditions, Met Éireann warns Met Éireann have issued a weather warning for four counties on Sunday with the possibility of torrential rain and flooding flagged by Met Éireann.

Rain warning issued for four counties on Sunday with possible flooding and difficult travel conditions, Met Éireann warns www.independent.ie/weather/rain...

Shane MacGowan’s sister Siobhán: ‘If Fairytale of New York comes on in the supermarket, I just abandon the trolley and leave’ Two years on from Shane MacGowan’s death, his younger sister Siobhán still finds it difficult to hear his music.

Shane MacGowan’s sister Siobhán: ‘If Fairytale of New York comes on in the supermarket, I just abandon the trolley and leave’ www.independent.ie/style/celebr...

At Uisneach, the sacred centre of Ireland, 2,500 people gather to scatter Manchán Magan’s ashes Month’s memorial hears world will be a less kind, generous, curious and gentle place with the writer’s passing

"There was sleeting rain, sheeting rain, and rain turned to ice that fell in the form of furious hailstones. It was the most elemental of weather for those gathered there at Uisneach, ...to honour a man who chose to live his life woven tightly into nature."

www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2025...

November Fair, by Patrick Kavanagh (read by Pat Layde) The great poet recounts a scene at the fair in Carrickmacross, when he strikes a dubious deal for two calves (from the first edition of Sunday Miscellany in 1968)

November Fair, by Patrick Kavanagh (read by Pat Layde)
Sunday Miscellany

The great poet recounts a scene at the fair in Carrickmacross, when he strikes a dubious deal for two calves (from the first edition of Sunday Miscellany in 1968)

www.rte.ie/radio/radio1...

YouTube video by ChocolateJesus101 Tom Waits - Don't Go Into That Barn

#Halloween
Don't go into that barn, yeah
I said don't go into that barn, yeah
Black cellophane sky at midnight
A big blue moon with three gold rings
I called Champion to the window
I pointed up above the trees
That's when I heard my name in a scream
Coming from the woods
youtu.be/qRSBmalHDV0?...

Michael Longley #halloween

Stunning essay.

Just had an interview with the Echo (Cork based newspaper) about The Planter's Daughter! It was great to chat about it.

Brilliant book - never without a copy!
☘️💪☘️

The superstitions and mysteries around Ireland's 'fairy forts'. Many ringforts in rural Ireland were associated with fairy activity and supernatural happenings in the recent past, writes @marionmcgarry.bsky.social ATU www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2... #Halloween

Who were RTÉ’s highest earners in 2024? Top-10 list a mix of executives and presenters Director general Kevin Bakhurst brought in pay caps following period of controversy at broadcaster

Who were RTÉ’s highest earners in 2024? Top-10 list a mix of executives and presenters